1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for populating a map database associated with a navigation system with the locations and characteristics of wireless access points and, more particularly, to a system and method for populating a map database associated with a vehicle navigation system with wireless access points by pre-installing the location and type of the access points in the database and/or identifying the location and type of the access points as the vehicle travels and then storing the locations in the map database.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A wide variety of vehicle systems currently being manufactured and anticipated to be manufactured in future vehicles require external communications using wireless protocols. For example, these vehicles may include map databases for navigation systems, weather information systems, traffic information systems, entertainment systems, etc. These systems may require continuous, or near continuous, updating so that the information used by the system is current in order to be effective. The updating techniques for these systems need to be inexpensive and cost effective. Typically, the updating techniques now being used for these types of systems are discretionary and require communications that are not necessarily highly reliable.
It is well known that the motion of an in-vehicle transceiver has various adverse effects on communications, as a result of Doppler shift, multi-path effects and channel variations. Much development effort has been expended in mitigating these effects, including the use of pilot signals, modulation schemes and channel characterization, which have led to success for cellular phones, but less success for wireless local-area networks.